Time and time again I see people trying to ride out through waves in onshore'ish conditions and they have the board pinched way up and they're just slogging along.

Why don't people ride faster and get some apparent wind up then arc out through the waves?

I was watching some good sailors today and even the best of them would lean back on the exit of a gybe and stall the board. What happened to bend ze knees and getting the weight forward and engaging the rail and carving through the gybe?

There aren't alot of good carve gybers left now, those that are recognised now with "wow you were doing some good gybes" would have looked like gumby's 15 years ago (myself included ). I think boards are so easy now that you can be lazy or sloppy and you will get around, back then the boards would spit you off without hesitation.

Ditto regarding slogging out, paranoid about loosing ground?